How can we speed the process of banning a spamming user?

Jul 13, 2010 1:20 PM

It's not hard to find someone spamming on any given day, it may be a malicious automated posting like that doof we had yesterday, or maybe it's just these guys posting links to their luxurite TV blog posts that don't actually list a price or sell a product.

It seems like these folks are allowed to stick around to bug us again instead of getting bashed with the ban hammer! Why?

I'm not asking to know what leads to a ban as it seems that could be abused, but what can we do to hasten the bannination?

Top Answers

In the interest of brevity….
Thank you to all who diligently notify us (via tattle) when an enthusiastic new member is detected.
Tattles of spam are reviewed carefully. We encourage you to continue to use this tool.
Spammers by nature are very industrious. If they can be turned from the dark side, they can be valuable contributors to this community. When warranted, we make an effort to show them the light.

We will continue to work with you to make this a wonderful place to be.

I think Woot tries to err on the side of second chances and are reluctant to drop the ban hammer on what might be innocent mistakes. Of course, this means that a few guilty ones get to sneak by at our expensive.

Perhaps, what would be ideal, is if Woot had a notification system that alerted people of their deals being deleted (for whatever reason, including "excessive postings"). As a more moderated response, it would allow Woot to act sooner, without resorting to banning someone who simply hasn't figure out the proper decorum.

I think Woot tries to err on the side of second chances and are reluctant to drop the ban hammer on what might be innocent mistakes. Of course, this means that a few guilty ones get to sneak by at our expensive.

Perhaps, what would be ideal, is if Woot had a notification system that alerted people of their deals being deleted (for whatever reason, including "excessive postings"). As a more moderated response, it would allow Woot to act sooner, without resorting to banning someone who simply hasn't figure out the proper decorum.

@chaosamoeba: I'm thinking that you're right... If @staff had a notification system, then they wouldn't have to be so lenient and err on the side of giving second chances. I've been wondering about that a bit recently, especially with all the BK issues - could there potentially be a "jail" of sorts, and a notification to specific users?

I obviously haven't approached this from every angle as of yet, so there may be flaws in this proposal, but what do you all think about the idea of a "probation" or "jail" system? Would it be effective, and allow @Wootstaff to be more proactive as moderators, or would it just cause harm to legitimate Wooters by slowing them down, and also the rest of us by depriving us of potential deals? Where do we call the trade-off good?

@arosiriak: you know that staff can contact members if they choose to. They may not tell us here, which is their right as the site owner. We already know based on bkindustries snarky notes that he has been contacted by woot staff. I think that staff handles things pretty well, why not give them a break. Considering what they have to deal with I think they are doing a pretty good job overall.

Also any tattles to staff are considered a notification system to them, think about using it when you see spam. Staff does prefer we tattle on spam that way.

@hobbit: Fair enough... I'm not at all meaning to bash on Staff, as they do an excellent job - it just might make it easier for us if there was some way to know that they had put someone on probation, or that some sort of action had been taken.

@arosiriak, @hobbit: I didn't intend to bash the staff either, and agree that they do an excellent job.

My impression is that, as with bkindustries, the staff currently has to figure out how to contact them (which we all know can be more troublesome than it sounds). If the staff had a way of notifying users that their deals were removed and why -- for example, through a pop-up when they log-in or try to post, with some default message (duplicate, too many posts from one site, too many posts too quickly, etc.) -- this might relieve them of some of that work.

As someone who has had a deal removed, I wanted to know why my deal was removed but also did not want to waste the staff or community time investigating it. As such, a notification system from staff to user may also help guide new members of the community who may be eager to post, but reluctant to inquire out of shyness, desire not to be a burden, or whatever other reason.

In the interest of brevity….
Thank you to all who diligently notify us (via tattle) when an enthusiastic new member is detected.
Tattles of spam are reviewed carefully. We encourage you to continue to use this tool.
Spammers by nature are very industrious. If they can be turned from the dark side, they can be valuable contributors to this community. When warranted, we make an effort to show them the light.

We will continue to work with you to make this a wonderful place to be.

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